You know - all those villagers are so darned cute, I found it surprising that I had a shallow little attachment to some of them. In fact, I felt a wee bit sad when they would die! Poor Mamba, Papu, Sitsu! You were all born here and were just little babies and lived such long lives, helping the island grow.

So my recommendation would be to have some sort of ritualistic hommage the villagers can perform in order to just get a small glimpse of the ancestors who have passed on - like in the graveyard, or in a fire dance of sorts. Maybe a new class like priests or doctors could perform this. It wouldn't be anything spooky - it would be totally sweet and endearing to see those characters you became "attached" to during their brief wee lil' lives.

They would appear as an apparition, smile, wave, and that would be it. Kind of comforting to know they are still "around".